I am currently setting myself a project to get more familiar with Maya 2017. I had used Cinema 4D for my short film eko and really enjoyed the 3D modeling aspect.
It's much more straight forward and less scary than I thought it would be. So here I am getting carried away with 3D modeling.
SYNOPSIS
Set
in Glastonbury Tor. A retrieval mission of an escaped military
bio-weapon from a shady tech organisation who implanted her with organs
from an alien lifeform. She drives off her pursuers using telekinetic
powers before collapsing, alone and helpless in the carnage of her own
outburst.
CAST
Eko & car lady Elizabeth Isaacs
Soldier 1 Angus Brown
Soldier 2 Jamie Wilson
CREW
Written and animated by Alex Fung
Extended script and synopsis by Phoebe Wood-Wheelhouse
Thumbnail Art by Katherine Sugrue
Concept Artwork by Katie Waklin
Music by Addam Tyndale
VO session photography by Raphael Fung
Aardman Animations mentor - Nick Miller
UWE tutors - Chris Webster, Luis Cook, Julia Bracegirdle
eko is a 2D 3D Hybrid project.
Software:After Effects, Photoshop and Cinema 4D.
Hardware: Microsoft Surface Pro 4. i7 16GB Ram.
Trailer script and concept 2 weeks.
Storyboarding and Animatics for Preproduction 4 weeks.
Production time in After Effects was 5 weeks.
eko (eko)Pronounced ‘echo’
Japanese term for Transfer of Merit
Voice over recording with Liz Isaacs
Voice over recording with Angus Brown
Voice over recording with Jamie Wilson
Studio assistant and VO photographer Raphael Fung
Midway through replacing animatic with After Effects work.
The finished thing! A gaming controller mounted onto my computer. :D
STEP 1
I bought a faulty Linx Vision from ebay. I thought the controller design was fantastic and wanted it on my Surface Pro 4. The Linx Vision was much smaller than my Surface Pro so I had to build a custom mount.
STEP 2
I took all the screws out to disassemble the whole thing.
STEP 3
Cutting the wires and attaching a USB cable to it instead. All the wires are colour coded so connecting a USB was very straight forward.
Moment of truth! Plugging in the USB. All the buttons lit up. :) Windows 10 reconised it as an xbox controller. Perfect. :)
Fired up Alice Madness Returns to test the controller. Everything works fine. I was very happy at this point.
STEP 4
Building the mount. A bit of wood I cut to 12.5 inches. I then cut and carved the ends to fit the control pads.
I used black acrylic paint. Applied with a sponge to get a smooth finish.
Once the paint was dry I started screwing everything in.
I then carved a channel to tuck the wires into the wood. Applied some masking tape and painted over it again with black paint.
STEP 5
Attaching the controller mount onto the backplate stand of my Surface Pro hard case. You can see the wire slightly pushing up the tape. But that's fine, not a big deal.
All attached. When folded back, the controller also works as a stand. Ta da! Before.
Without the gaming controller case attached.
After.
WITH the gaming controller case attached. :D
Since the controller is only attached to the case I can still easily take it out the Surface Pro 4 which is handy.
